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Kigali – King Mohammed VI left Sunday afternoon Rwanda and headed for Tanzania, the second stage of a royal tour that will also lead the Sovereign to Ethiopia.
After Rwanda and Tanzania, the Moroccan monarch will also visit Ethiopia, host country of the African Union.
This is King Mohammed VI’s first tour to the region since his coronation in July 1999.
The tour comes three months after Morocco announced its intention to return to the African Union. King Mohammed VI addressed a letter to the 27th Summit of the African Union held in Kigali, Rwanda, in July. In the letter, the King announced Rabat’s decision to reunite with its African family.
Ahead of King Mohammed VI’s visit to Tanzania’s Foreign Minister said his country “supports” Morocco’s return to the African Union (AU), pointing out that his “country and the whole of Africa will benefit from the return of the Kingdom in view the experience and expertise it has accumulated in several key areas.”
“As a member of the African Union, we welcome the return of Morocco to the AU, and Tanzania will certainly support this return,” said Tanzania’s Foreign Minister, Augustine Mahiga, in a press statement on the occasion of the visit.
Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia have diplomatic relations with the Polisario, the breakaway movement, which claims to represent the Saharwis and seeks to establish an independent state in the Western Sahara, in southern Morocco.
Through its return to African Union and King Mohammed VI’s visit to East Africa, Morocco seeks to isolate the Polisario and convince these three east African countries to withdraw their recognition of the self-proclaimed Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.
